Mending
by meowbooks
Summary: Spoilers for Children of Earth and Series 5. The universe is mending and there's one more thing the Doctor wants to change.


Disclaimer: The Who-verse definitely does not belong to me...

**Mending**

"I hate reruns." The Doctor gazed into the white light and willed Amelia Pond to remember. He'd faced gods and demi-gods, saved the whole of reality, but never alone. The voices of all he had ever loved had echoed in his head, even when his own had scratched savagely distracting him. He hoped, when Amelia Pond woke up, she would remember their voices too. For when he had whispered in her ear he recalled and summoned up their love and faith. _Remember, Amelia, the girl who waited, be the girl who remembers.  
><em>  
>He walked towards the crack in space and time and was nothingness.<p>

One moment River was standing in a museum empty of all it had once held, staring up, watching a large box blast it's way towards a furious explosion in the only sky left in the universe.

The next, she was surrounded by people in fancy clothes-a wedding reception by the looks of it-without any knowledge as to how she had arrived there in the first place. River reached for something in her jacket. It was a blue book with a paneled flipped through the empty pages. It was odd to be carrying an empty book.

River walked up the steps towards the lined the steps waiting for the guests of wedded couple arrived in a white limousine. The red-headed bride paused to take a photo with one of the well wishers. The groom grinned happily and stood to one was closer to River. Something clicked inside her head, "Rory."

Rory turned around, "Oh hello. " River handed him the book. It seemed right, "Give this to Amy. She needs to...remember something. Someone."

_***_  
><em>"There's someone missing, someone so, so important...<em>"

He was aware, and then he was… less than wind, insubstantial, intangible—agonizingly wrenched from a state of less than nothing to bombarded by sensation and feeling and solidity. He was back. A thought was finished, a thought he had started before he had gone: This universe was still mending, sweeping the remnants of the starless reality away. He had a small window of timey-wimey wiggle room.

_September 2009_

_London_

The Doctor shivered, not from the cold, but from the onslaught of psychic tension, terror, and uncertainty pressing the air. He hadn't come the first time for a reason. Harriet Jones had been right. During the events of these days he had been somewhere else and this atmosphere was acutely reminding him of where , there had to be consequences for what was happening now. He was here to change two things and he could precisely because he hadn't been here. Minimum interference. Not the usual game plan, is it?

"No, dad. NO!" Alice's scream shook with horror,fear and disbelief. He couldn't and that,that woman was still talking. How could she still be talking?

"Captain."

Jack didn't look at her and nodded. Alice ran. "STEVEN!" She burst into the hallway. Her baby was screaming too. They hauled him away and the door slammed behind them. Hands held her arms, pulled her backward, it didn't matter, she'd fight them all to stop this.

Jack typed furiously, eyes on his task. He knew he shouldn't think about anything else. He shouldn't think about Owen, Toshiko, Ianto. He shouldn't recall their voices,their trust, their faith in him. He couldn't. Not when millions of lives could be saved. The world had to be more important than his heart. It had to be. He was nearly there. There was pounding on glass. Alice. Their eyes met. _Forgive me._His hand hovered over the keyboard. A faint whisper touched the air just behind him, "Jack." He swerved around-no one was there. He looked down at his keyboard. There was a sticky note: _Check your pockets._ He knew whose penmanship it reached into his pockets and it was a metallic device with a tiny disk.

Jack turned to a soldier, "Get him out of there."

"I thought you needed-"

"NOW!"The soldier obeyed and ushered Steven away. Jack placed the device on the platform, pointed the disk upward, hurried to the keyboard and pushed the key. The disk vibrated violently and children around the world sang driving the clouded minds of the 456 away.

Johnson signaled to the man at the door, "Let her in."

A buzz, the door opened, Alice rushed in, kneeled at Steven's feet and embraced him, smoothing his hair, brushing the lint from his shoulder,and kissing his tried to pull away, "Muuuum!Everyone's watching."

Jack smiled, "They're just glad you're safe."

Alice rose to her feet ,strode towards Jack, and slapped him.

"But I didn't."

She glanced at Steven's confused face before steering Jack away from him and whispering,"You would have.I even know the reasons why." She turned away and Jack reached for her wrist.

"Alice-"

She removed his hand and beckoned to Steven. "Say good-bye to your Uncle Jack."

Steven ran into Jack's arms and hugged him. Steven sighed as Jack hugged him back too tightly, "Is anybody going to tell me what's going on?"

Jack ruffled his hair, "Maybe someday."

Jack watched them leave. He scanned the room for the person who had written the note and realized if it was him then he probably wouldn't want to be surrounded by soldiers and officials when he revealed himself. Jack slipped into an empty hallway near the exit,sat on a white bench and white double doors sat next to Jack on the bench.

"I'm sorry,Jack."

"For what? We-I-thought..."

"For that."

"It was him wasn't it?" Jack paused. "Where is he?"

" wasn't suppose to be here." Ianto looked at Jack. They both thought the same thing, but Jack said it first.

"He knew I would do it."

_Hours earlier or minutes earlier..._

Ianto gasped, jerking forward in shock, head colliding unpleasantly with another solid something. "Ow..."

It was a room, a strange, steam-punk, orange and yellow room and there was a man, a white bow-tied, tuxedo wearing man. He held a torch in one hand and an empty syringe in the other, "Oh, hello. Sorry about that." He tossed the syringe over his shoulder, "Note to self: Do not closely lean over and stab an unconscious man with an antidote or heads will roll. No. Collide. Sorry." The man flashed light into his eyes.

Ianto batted the torch away. The man smiled, seemingly satisfied and pocketed the torch.

"Reactions are good. You're a lucky man, Mr. Jones." The man pulled a key on a silver chain from his pocket and put it around Ianto's neck.

"Where's Jack?"

"You're going to put this in his pocket." The man held out a strange device.

Ianto took it. He stood, studying the man, trying to place him."Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"I've seen him."

"It doesn't matter if you believe who I am. Just what I say." The Doctor turned to face Ianto. "They have to think you're dead."

"I'm not?"

"But the first time you were. Every decision Jack made- will make-on this issue will be affected by your death. I only want you to change one of them. This is very important." He gestured towards the device in Ianto's hand. "Put that in his pocket, the key you're wearing has a perception filter don't let him see you until the 456 leave."

"But I won't be there when he wakes up. What are they going to think?"

"The bodies have been stored somewhere else. The paperwork and the 456 will keep them from wondering until you stop Jack."

Ianto frowned, "Stop Jack. I thought I was helping him."

"You are. I can't tell you what happened the first time. Too many variables already."

"What did you mean, the first time ?"

The Doctor looked away, fiddling with levers and buttons. "I won't always be here.I can't, not for everything." He looked up from the console and nodded towards the door. "Follow Jack, put it in his pocket."

"How will I know what it's for?"

"You'll know." said the Doctor pushing Ianto out the door. The Doctor checked his viewing screen flickered and Amy appeared, "...Raggedy man! I remember you, and you are LATE for my wedding!"

_June 2010_

The Doctor leaned against the wall, thoroughly danced out, and watched Amelia and Rory. "...Two thousand years. The boy who waited. Good on you, mate."

"What is it with you and married redheads?"

The Doctor turned his head, his top hat fell off, and his jaw dropped. There, standing in the same doorway with crossed arms, and a smug look was Donna. He adjusted his tie, "I don't know what you mean." He looked her up and down and added, "Person I've never seen before."

"Oh yeah?Then why are you so uncomfortable?"

"I'm not." He said putting his hat back on. "You startled me, that's all."

"I know who you are."

"You can't."

" I do."

"If, if you knew me, and I'm not saying you should, 'cause you shouldn't and you don't. Where's the FWOOOOSH?" The Doctor mimed beams of something exploding out of her head.

Donna rolled her eyes,"You don't remember? You silly,forgetful, mad, outer-space-"

"Dunce?"

"Yes, you are."

"How? How could you possibly remember me? Particularly, when I'm a _me _you've never seen before."

"I can, because you need to be more careful about what you're thinking when you're in someone's head!" said Donna gesturing towards Amy.

" Why does this keep happening? How could I be so thick?" The rewind, his time stream unraveling, Amy with her eyes closed in the forest inside the ship inside a stone maze, he'd pressed his forehead to her's willing her to remember him, trust him, but he couldn't help it right before he had broken the connection with Amy he had imagined Donna, a Donna who could remember if he'd been able to do something oh, so many months ago. Amy must've taken that false memory in. She'd brought Donna back.

"Mrs. Temple-Noble." grinned the Doctor. "Does that mean he's Mr. Noble?"

" 'Course not. And don't joke, Mr. Bow-tie. He's lovely." Donna warned, but she smiled. "We used some of our winnings for a children's science museum. I have to kick Granddad out come closing time everyday."

"Say hello for me."

" I will," Donna handed him the blue journal. "River's waiting for you."


End file.
